Hot Hotels

Hot Hotels: Mandarin Oriental, Milan

Discreetly housed in four buildings that were formerly the headquarters of bank, Milan’s Mandarin Oriental is a short walk from Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga for those who want to splurge on shopping sprees, and La Scala opera house, for those who want to absorb the city’s culture. For fans of the latter, the concierge can go one step further and organize private out-of-hours tours of the Brera art gallery, home to works by Piero della Francesca, Raphael and Caravaggio. Those who want to merge these dual strands of capitalism and civilization, however, need look no further than the hotel itself, which combines unabashed luxury and superlative customer service with thoughtfully designed interiors and Michelin-starred food. The rooms are decked out with large, egg-shaped baths, parquet floors and dusk-coloured velvet textiles. If you have a surrealist streak, the second floor boasts a Fornasetti-inspired suite. Downstairs, the bar is clad in black-and-white mosaics—a pleasantly dizzying spot for a drink. Underneath, just beyond celebrity stylist Massimo Serini’s salon, lies the spa, which incorporates the five key elements of Feng Shui philosophy and offers an even larger array of treatments.